There are increasing applications for robotically controlled vehicles, especially robotically controlled ground vehicles that are adapted and configured to traverse unprepared terrain. Some robotic, all-terrain vehicles are used in military applications. These vehicles may be required to carry supplies, sensors, weapons, or injured soldiers. There are also analogous non-military uses for such vehicles, including transportation of supplies during wilderness trips, remote surveillance by law enforcement officials, and transportation of injured people.
Unfortunately, the algorithms for controlling the path of a vehicle over unprepared terrain sometimes produce unexpected results. Even though the vehicle controller may have information from a variety of spatial sensors (including visual, infrared, acoustic, and radar signals, and GPS information in combination with stored terrain maps). The sensors may not detect some obstacles, the computer may not properly interpret the sensor information, or the path of the vehicle may change suddenly in time (such as from falling boulders or shock waves from nearby explosions). In such cases, the vehicle may be impacted in such a way that low frequency, high amplitude G levels are encountered. One example would be a vehicle running into a wall.
These low frequency, high G impacts can have a severe effect on the payload of the vehicle. As one example, the vehicle can include a controller, such as a computer. The computer may fail mechanically because it is inadequately designed for the low frequency, high amplitude environment. Often, such controllers are vibration tested, typically at frequencies of 20 hertz and above; or shock tested, such as with half sine waveforms; or exposed to static G levels, such as in a centrifuge but these various testing methods and environment may be inadequate to simulate a vehicle hitting a wall. If the controller's qualification testing was inadequate for this environment, then failures will likely result.
What is needed are methods and apparatus for managing the environment of a critical payload being exposed to a low frequency, high G environment. The present invention does this in novel and unobvious ways.